After installing the first door, I was ready to install the set of two doors. The new hinges were different than the old ones. I was not sure, but they seemed thicker and the hinge bracket was larger. I was worried that the two doors would not fit now with the hinges installed.
I placed the first door in the opening, and while bracing the door with my elbow, I tried to fit the other door next to it. No success. The doors were too wide. As I was taking down the door, one door fell out of my hands and tumbled, causing a busted corner. “Son of a gun!” However, that was not what I said. I picked the door and the broken corner piece off the floor. I said to myself, “I can fix this; I can just glue it back on. And that was what I did. I was done for the day.
The following day, I made a second attempt at fitting the doors even though I knew they did not fit. I wanted to see how much wood I needed to remove from each door. I screwed down the hinges on the repaired door. As I placed the second door in the opening, I dropped the door. Like a ball in a pinball machine, the door bounced around hitting the counter and then the floor. Phew! No broken pieces, but a nice dent on the bottom of the door. Ugh! Rubbing the dent like it would magically disappear, I said out loud, “I guess I need a third hand.” I know Efiwym was within earshot, but she did not offer any help. After dropping another door, she probably thought it was best to stay away from me.
I made another attempt and got the second door installed. I had about a ¼ inch overlay of the doors. I removed the doors and hinges and set up the table saw to cut an 1/8 inch off both doors. Double and triple checking to make sure I was cutting the right edges. Upstairs I went with the doors. I installed the hinges and the doors and guess what? They still hit each other. It was a tight fit, so I got my Sear Craftman® hand plane and started removing wood from both doors. Getting the hand plane adjusted to get a nice thin, even cut was brutal. From too deep of a cut to a crooked cut, I spend more time setting up the plane then planing. With wood shavings all over the counter. I finally had the 1/16” spacing between the doors. A few test swings, I was done.
Before I installed the doorknobs and refinished the bare edges of the door, my eyes caught an opening between one cabinet door and the frame. There was a BIG gap. The doors were level, but the cabinet was not. After 35 years, we had some settling. I noticed it when I worked on some projects around the house. Some cabinets were leaning or sagging and some walls bowing. This cabinet frame was no longer level, but my doors were. I also noticed that these doors were higher than the single door next to them. Well, that was not right.
The doors came off, so I could re-align the doors in the opening. Fortunately, the hinges would hide the multiple screw holes to get the doors right. One screw hole was stripped out. I put a longer black #6 oval head screw on my list of things to buy.
The doors were finally installed. I stepped back to admire my work only discover the one coat of wipe-on poly looked terrible. In the sunlight you could see streaks. The poly was from my last cabinet project in the fall and it was old. Why not put another coat of poly?
The next day I went out and purchased new wipe-on poly, steel wool and a 1 inch long black #6 oval head screw. Why steel wool you ask? I had success with steel wool between coats of poly before. Using 220 grit sandpaper seemed too harsh and left visible scratches. From this experience, I would get more lighting in the basement, use steel wool between coats and use brush-on poly for the first coat only.
I wiped on my fifth coat of poly on the doors and replaced the stripped-out screw. I installed the doorknobs. I asked Efiwym for an opinion on the location of the knobs, and she said, “I thought were going with door pulls on the doors and knobs on the drawers.” I knew we decided the opposite and eventually she was okay with it. The brown bronze knobs looked great. Now the drawer fronts.